funkify your life
With George Porter, Jr. playing his last gigs with the New Orleans Social Club this weekend, and the Taylor Hicks tour heading for a coast crawl this coming week, it seemed a good time to let the Jam (capital J) rest and give up the funk. If you don’t know, the NOSC was founded right after Katrina to help raise funds and awareness to restore the city. Porter is still in the game with the Funky Meters and Porter-Batiste-Stolz, and the NOSC will carry on with bassist Tony Hall.
I’m bumping the weekend open thread to tomorrow, in the very off chance some of you happen to be wandering around Calgary in an underscheduled state and want to catch Porter’s last NOSC gigs at the Calgary Folk Festival.
When soul gets down to dancing, we get funk. Didn’t have much luck finding good Porter video, but here’s a taste:
a very short Porter solo
and a big mess of a funkified jam:
New Orleans Social Club with Warren Hayes et al (incl. Hicks on harp)
The video I’d love to have shown I can’t: during Hick’s shadow tours last summer (see bio for explanation), Porter replacing regular bass-man Mitch Jones on the Denver stop. There is some great video of it out there, I mean great video, with some killer bass solos - hopefully some day it’ll see the light of day.
And finally, not funk, but something to make anyone who’s ever felt like a musical fool take heart. It can happen to anyone.
So, what do you listen to, when you want to funkify your life?
categories: live, music
tags: Calgary Folk Fest, George Porter
posted by what at 04:00 am
The “Greyboy Allstars” without a doubt. All you need to be sweet and fine is right here.
What Happened To Television
http://www.greyboyallstars.com/
Well known to the jam/festival cirucit
I’m on the run today. This is a very funky man/band. I recently saw them for the first time. Both groups are listed under Jazz and are “festivilized”. So for those that glaze over at the “sound of jazz”…it’s not all missionary. I missed out on Nina Simone and Cassandra Wilson because I “don’t enjoy jazz singers”. I missed a lot of soul.
“you’ve got to roll with the funk if you wanna have a good time”
“you’ve to to rock with the funk if you wanna have a good time”
Burr Johnson Band
http://www.myspace.com/theburrjohnsonband
I just love that last vid. I’m going to keep that around for when I need a smile.
debunot, thanks for introducing me to “Greyboy Allstars”…I took a listen and loved them instantly.
To funkify my life, I listen to some Jamie Lidell http://www.myspace.com/jamielidell
..or James Brown. Oh yeah.
I have the videos downloaded that were taken by Azgoddess from Taylormadesoul.com in Denver. I captured a little bit of Taylor and George Porter, Jr. TaylorMadeSoul.com has a lot of the after American Idol Tour from Denver in their multimedia section.
I tried to embed the video but it didn’t work. Here’s the link to GoFish
http://www.gofish.com/player.gfp?gfid=30-1139404
What, perhaps some begging is in order to get that Denver aftershow vid released, hu?
I will help in anyway I can. Does begging here help at all?
You want me to say please, Baby I can say please. You want me to get down…on…my….knees, baby I can get down on my knees…I can say please…I’m begging you PLEASE. Please, please, please, please…
TJam, I think it’s going to need precision begging. I’ll get started on that.
I emailed what with the links so he can decide how to put it up..
Thanks, cochem, we can just add them in here:
TaylorMadeSoul.com shadow tour videos by “azgoddess”
A good taste of what the shadow tours were all about. But if these are the appetizers, the one we’re wanting to serve up is the filet mignon.
I like Michael Franti. Hope some of you do too.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KlHzRir7K3g
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xb-VN88MHL8
Jazzy, I like that. He’s got that Al Carty pogo stick thing going, too
Boogie Carty knows how to tear it up. So does Taylor Hick.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hRILSUE_bRE
a good Combo.
Franti is a cat that switches on live and flies.
I was grabbing stuff at archive.org today and almost grabbed some of his stuff. I will tonight. Any suggestions? I get a little overwhelmed there.
Thanks Cochem and What for posting the links to the San Jose shadow tour. Those are the first downloads I have of that night. And what a magical night it was!
This is for Asstral, What and Roberta Flack/Donny Hathaway fans. NPR has a great interview with Roberta. Please click on “join the discussion” for a great video.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=12305475
On a funky note, a new Sharon Jones cd is on the way. Long live the Dap Kings.
This link works
http://tinyurl.com/yt368n
Sharon Jones 100 Days and 100 Nights, mentioned and highlighted at Soul-sides. Sept. 2007. For the love of Winehouse let’s make this a big one.
Brooklyn Vegan post
http://tinyurl.com/2t8c8b
Malisa, if you meant Franti, I like all the songs on Yell Fire
http://www.spearheadvibrations.com/
Did you want ones’ w/more singing or more cool music?
I’m actually over-scheduled, over-baked, under-hydrated, and seriously sleep deprived…but I did indeed catch the NOSC on the main stage tonight at the Calgary Folk Festival. I’ll see a couple of NOSC performances in workshops tomorrow, as well.
Their 50-minute show was superb. Most of it was one incredibly long, impressive jam, highlighted by “Fortunate Son.” These guys just get on with it - no muss, no fuss, and simply lay down some powerhouse funk & groove. It was so impressive. There were a lot of musicians dancing at stage side during the performance.
(Jazzybug, I also discovered Michael Franti at the Calgary Folk Festival…about 6 years ago or so, I think.)
Bettye Lavette was also a blast tonight. She reminded me very much of Taylor Hicks in that the woman moved her ass all over the stage. I said to my concert-mate, “We’ve got us a dancer!”
Now…I saw something tonight I have never seen in my life before. I saw a crowd of 10,000 people give a standing ovation for a bass solo. It was the greatest bass performance I’ve ever seen. But it wasn’t George Porter Jr’s. It was by Victor Wooten. Never saw anything like it in my life.
Wow True. Victor & Roy (Futureman). The Wooten’s are amazing!!! Sounds thrilling.
True - any idea if there’s any official (or otherwise) taping at that fest? I can’t see anything at their website that would indicate one way or the other.
There is definitely official videotaping going on - both hand-held cams at some of the workshop stages, and remotely operated cams at main stage. I don’t know what they intend to do with footage. But I’d pay full price just for that set by Bela Fleck and Flecktones (the Wooten brothers forming the rhythm section). I’ll see what I can find out.